State Senate approves ERA years after 1982 deadline

Tribune Illustration

Tribune Illustration

Maura ZurickTribune reporter

SPRINGFIELD—The Illinois Senate approved the Equal Rights Amendment with Democratic support today, but Republican women lined up to condemn the effort as a symbolic gesture that’s decades late and a political ploy that distracts from the state’s financial mess.

Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, argued the ERA still could be added to the U.S. Constitution even though it failed to be ratified before a 1982 deadline. She said legal decisions have cleared a still-viable path for ERA, but skeptical opponents disagreed.

Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno of Lemont called the proposal a "diversion tactic" so voters won’t look closely at Democratic failures over the last “4,152 days” that they’ve been running the show in Springfield.

"I'm for the amendment, but frankly I resent the fact that women are being used in this debate," Radogno said. "We're being used as pawns to divert attention from a pretty abysmal (Democratic) record going into an election year."

She and three other Republican women lashed out at Democrats for putting ERA’s symbolism above economic policies in a state where the unemployment rate for women is worse than the national average.

Steans countered that calling the amendment "disingenuous" or a "distraction" is a duplicitous argument that was used to stifle equal rights efforts over the years.

"I do believe we can be taking on and tackling the fiscal stability of the state at the same time we're making sure we have fundamental, basic rights available to every single person in this state," said Steans.

The deadline for the ERA passed 32 years ago after only 35 states approved it, falling three states short of the required number to amend the Constitution. But supporters believe remaining states can still vote to ratify it.

“In short, we need this because we don’t have it yet,” said Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields. “Why is it that we still make less than a man for comparable work?”

Senators voted 39-11, with six voting present. The measure now goes to the House.